No Mind Games! - Victory

Santa Monica, CA



3.4.2023 - 7:12am PST

It was a wild night. A trip out to see his buddies in SWWS compete on a live event in Reseda. Poor guy didn’t hit the hay until after 6. Not much time for sleep as his alarm went off, but he had to make due. He needed to continue, but not for himself.

*THUD* *THUD* *THUD*

He didn’t have the most graceful pattern during his run on the treadmill, but the idea of burning off some calories after a half dozen beers drank after getting home seemed to be the way to go. Regrets. With each stride bringing an incoherent pattern throughout his small home gym, his focus was clear. Stare forward, listen to the podcast. Lenny & Carl Presents.. At least, that’s what he thought they were called. Some obvious wrestling fans giving their point of view on upcoming events. While it was nice to hear about other promotions, it was time to hear some truth.

Lenny: You know I’m looking forward to PWE’s upcoming Victory. A lot of heavy matches, but one that I’m looking forward to watching is the triple threat to determine who will be fighting for the Fusion Championship in the future. You have Wraith against Sarah Wolf and Colton Saint. Did you hear about this match?

Carl: I did. As loaded of a card as it is, that particular match seems to be competitive in it’s own way. All three competitors are wanting to make a statement. For some, it’s about going for the championship. For some, it might just be the element of making a name for themselves.

Lenny: We know what Wraith and Sarah Wolf are capable of. They’re on a collision course, naturally, but it feels like Colton Saint might be the odd man out with this one.

A slight bit of disappointment rang through his mind as he heard the podcasters write him off immediately. His speed was slowing down as he had passed the two mile marker. Still, he wasn’t going to stop.

Lenny: I never understood the appeal of the guy. He’s a big, lumbering dude who can move around the ring and all, but where’s the fire in him?

Carl: I mean, you figure he would want to continue laying low. Considering he separated from his wife, a smart man would pretty much call it a day and wait until he was ready.

Lenny: Are the fans actually ready though? We’ve seen him, yes. There’s a lot of fans out there who haven’t forgotten the fact that he kidnapped a woman and later married her. The man nearly went to prison, had it not been for her stating that it was all for television.

He definitely made mistakes in his past, but that was the past. In his mind, he wasn’t the same guy who made a terrible mistake in Nevada two years ago. He was the guy who became a husband and father of two. He was sick, but he found the cure.. Hopefully.

Carl: If you look at him, he has no aggression anymore. There’s no intensity with his wrestling. His matches have been weaker than ever before. This isn’t the same guy who would fight tooth and nail against the very best. He just tries to survive long enough to get paid. Not a very smart man by any means.

Lenny: Not to mention, he looks out of shape.

Carl: Yeah, pretty rough loo..

His headphones ripped from his ears. As he slowed to a crawl, he slid backwards momentarily before the treadmill came to a stop. Glaring down at the headphones in his hand, Colton shrugged his shoulders in frustration. Moments later, he was making a pot of coffee. He had a correspondent coming his way to interview him, of course it would be the polite thing to have a refreshment ready. As he finished making his coffee, he jetted off to get himself ready to talk about the match.

7:48am PST

Everything was set up. It was time to talk about his upcoming bouts, but his nerves were growing tired. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, or the fact that Luci Summers brought her own coffee to the interview. He looked down at his cup, glancing at the dark roast splashing around inside of it.

Luci Summers: Colton, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you made coffee.

A slow exhale led to a short smile arriving on his face. It wasn’t the worst way to start his day, that was for sure. Instead, he might as well move on from that momentary frustration. As he sat across the table from Ms. Summers, Colton looked at the microphone on the table that was connected to a laptop computer. Summers, working on the last of her notes, perked up with a smile as she signaled that they were ready to begin. Colton gave a slight nod, taking a sip of his coffee as the little countdown meter went from three down to zero.

Luci Summers: Hi Everyone. It’s Luci and we have Colton Saint with us inside of his beautiful home here in Santa Monica. Colton, it’s always nice to see you.

Colton Saint: Thanks for swinging by.

Luci Summers: So, you’re a busy guy these days. Thank you for squeezing the time in for this quick interview but a lot of people are wanting to know your thoughts heading into Orlando when you take on Sarah Wolf and Wraith in a triple threat match to determine a contender for the Fusion Championship.

Colton Saint: I mean, let’s talk about it.

Luci Summers: Excellent. By the way, super beautiful home. For those who are listening, this place is amazing. You actually get a pretty solid view of the Pacific Ocean. How did you manage to afford this kind of place?

Colton Saint: It wasn’t all me. A little help here and there, but I like it.

He was ashamed to admit that he wasn’t able to purchase the place on his own. It took a wife and a father in law to help him make sure they had the place for Kenji and Maya.

Luci Summers: It’s very nice. So, Colton. How are you feeling about this upcoming match?

Colton Saint: I feel pretty good about it right now. Obviously, last week, I had my first match in PWE. Some momentum came to play, good win. I had expectations of myself when I first came to this company, it was very simple. To get into the ring, do my best, and slowly work up the chain to possibly look at being a Champion. Obviously, I didn’t expect a chance to compete for a title this early on. Maybe that’s a good sign for me. I thought the match went well and obviously management thought so too. Key takeaway, I didn’t shit the bed last time I was in Orlando and people enjoyed it so much that I’m doing this again with much bigger stakes.

Luci Summers: It’s been a little while since you held a singles championship, hasn’t it? I remember you used to carry around a couple titles here and there. Obviously the win paid off for you, how cool would it be for you to go for a title within your first few matches?

Colton Saint: I mean, it’s different than it used to be. When I walked around with two Championships, it was horrible for me. Not because of the challenge, I was used to it. It was that I was in such rough shape physically and mentally. I tore my lat YEARS ago and it was catching up to me. Ever since the surgery, things have felt good, but with one thing getting fixed, there’s a whole other problem waiting in the wings. It’s cool to have that confidence from the company, but I don’t see myself as a Championship material kind of guy just yet. Something else needs to be there. Hopefully I find it really soon.

Summers looked surprised at the comment from Saint about not being ready to have a Singles championship. Most people she spoke to would boast about how they are at the top of their game, but she wasn’t getting that vibe at all from him. She wanted to try and egg the man on, but it wasn’t going to work out.

Luci Summers: What are your thoughts on Sarah Wolf? A lot of people are saying she might be the dark horse in this match, but you seem to be taking a different approach. Tell us about it.

Colton Saint: That sounds really rehearsed, sorry. Look, I know very little about Sarah Wolf. Anything that I’ve looked up about her seems to be geared towards a pretty sadistic side. Not a lot to base off of, but I do believe that she’s looking to make the same statement as so many others who have come up against me. It’s like the David vs. Goliath philosophy. Someone marches into a prison and they take out the biggest guy. I’m definitely not the biggest name in PWE, but I’m a pretty big guy. We’re fighting here, and I’m pretty sure it’d be a feather in her cap to be able to knock off someone 6’5” and 250 plus. It’s always hard to tell the motives from people, but I do believe that she wouldn’t be entering this match out the idea of getting that Fusion Championship in the future. Problem for her is simple though, too simple actually.

Luci Summers: And what kind of problem is that?

Colton Saint: Nothing too drastic, just she’s taking on someone who she simply doesn’t know. The enemy you don’t know is always more dangerous than the ones you see every day. That’s just one of the reasons I know she could easily become one of the biggest thorns in my side. Just like my lack of knowledge of her, she has the same for me. She doesn’t know what I can do in there aside from what she saw a couple weeks ago. I like to have a good time, we all know that. I like to throw people around the ring, we saw plenty of that. Still, does she know exactly why I’m in PWE to begin with? Nah, she didn’t think about that. She saw a chance to get into a spot where she can become a Champion. Who wouldn’t feel invited by that idea?

Luci Summers: It sounds like there will be a feeling out process in there between the two of you.

Colton Saint: I’d say so. Every match I have right now is a feeling out process. Not just for my opponents, but myself. I’m not what I was, I’m struggling to really find my identity in this business after everything that took place. All those regrets I have, the only thing on my mind when I wrestle.. It’s simple, I just want to get better. I want to make this place actually benefit from having me there. Just like how I want to benefit from having the company with me as well. It’d be pretty short lived if I don’t make it through this match, however. That’s the big test for me, even outside of a title opportunity in the works. It’s a matter of finding what I can do and doing it. I don’t know how this is going to work with Wolf, but I know it’s going to be very competitive.

A long drink of coffee had calmed him down momentarily. With a slight smile on his face, he leaned back on the chair to see what else was going to be thrown his way.

Luci Summers: Now, we go from the unknown to somebody that has made a dent in PWE. We’re talking about Wraith. Even then, a very mysterious competitor. How do you prepare when you face off against people who like to throw around mind games?

Colton Saint: Wrestling is just as mentally taxing as it is physically. I’ve never dealt with Wraith in the past. To know the capabilities of them is almost impossible when you think about it. Just the same, though, I’m sure that the mind games could and would be very effective against such a tough opponent. They haven’t faced me so I don’t know if I’m exactly on their radar. They will benefit from a win, just like me. Here’s the difference though. I’m not a cerebral guy. I don’t think it’s going to do me any favors to pretend I know someone when I can just get into the ring with them and overpower them. For all the mind tricks and things of that nature, a punch to the mouth will do the trick. That is, if I hit that punch. See, now we’re talking real mind games here. What if I trip getting into the ring and I stub my toe. Then I keep thinking about my toe and then all of a sudden the toe is too much for me and I fall to the mat and Wraith suddenly wins the match?

Summers went quiet upon hearing Saint’s reaction to the mind games comment.

Colton Saint: Or worse.. Oh, I’m cooking now. I look out into the crowd and someone says “XYZ” to me. I look down, thinking I left my zipper down. Then, I’ll frantically think about the entire walk down to the ring, concerned about the fact that I have now left myself completely exposed by not taking the extra half a second to zip the God damn pants up. Worse yet, now I think I’ve exposed the ding dong to a crowd of hundreds, possibly thousands of people in attendance. No, possibly a million people who are watching this on television have now seen the mickey! Then, I realize the truth when I actually look down and see that I’m wearing trunks. There’s no zipper on the damn trunks, so I psyched myself out for NOTHING. That’s mind games for you. At least, that’s what we WANT people to think Mind Games are inside of that ring. If it were only that simple.

Saint wasn’t finished yet.

Colton Saint: The entire premise of mind games are simple. You fuck with someone’s head, and Wraith has full intentions of doing so. May as well beat ol’ Colton Saint before he even gets into the ring. That would be the easiest way to go. Well, let me fill you in on a little bit of reality. Mind games don’t mean anything to me, but what Wraith physically can do inside of the ring is what I’m thinking about. What can I do to defeat Wraith? What can I do to defeat Sarah Wolf? Those are the questions that need to be answered in Orlando. For them to defeat me, they’re going to have outwrestle me and they’re have to keep me down. You can’t play mind games with a guy who simply just doesn’t have a mind anymore. I don’t know where it went… unless.. You find it in a special place.

With a confused Luci Summers watching on, Colton pulled a box up and set it down onto the table. He slowly opened it up and gave a quick smirk. It was time for the cheap plug.

Colton Saint: Folks, have you ever had that brain fart that messes your day up? Ever have to deal with not one but two opponents who would rather send you into a state of insanity than actually defeat you in open combat? Well, I have something to help you out. Brought to you by my good friends at Magic Spoon, I bring to you the one and only Toasty Oat Particles.

Luci Summers: Oat Bran.

Colton Saint: Toasty Oat Bran! To have a clear head to keep those bastards at bay, you need a little something to keep you elevated and strong, not the weed kind of elevated. Bad dogs. This, right here, is the gateway to find the true self and a Champion within. Want to become the Fusion Champion? A simple win can come that way thanks to the power of a good healthy breakfast. It’s almost 8am here and I’m fucking tired. Yes, I swore in a commercial because I haven’t had my Magic Spoon yet. If I did, I would be ready to take on the world and possibly win that Fusion Championship after winning a contendership on Victory against two very weird people. VERY weird. They don’t eat cereal, I’ve heard it from everyone. What I’ve also heard is that if you don’t eat this special kind of amazing Toasty Oat Bran, you’re going to be eating some of that other garbage that might take away your ability to win this match. Things like the following… Sugar. Fat. Carbohydrates. Gluten. I’m naming things here that are harmful. Smoking! Booze. Crack. The things Wraith may eat on a daily basis that aren’t pizza. Um.. Oh! What’s that food that Sarah Wolf probably doesn’t like?

Luci Summers: Turkey?

Colton Saint: Turkey! Exactly.

Luci Summers: Colton, you don’t want people to eat the stuff Sarah Wolf doesn’t like?

Colton Saint: Well, I mean.. Does she eat paint chips?

Luci Summers: No?

Colton Saint: Then, no. I don’t want people eating paint chips. You don’t find paint chips in Magic Spoon cereals. I’ve warned people that this is too good to be true but trust me, it’s just too good! Buy the cereal, watch me get into that ring and win a chance to become the Fusion Champion. Maybe even send me a donation. I’ll buy you a box and you can send me a donation. I don’t care! Just watch me win and eat the fucking cereal. No Mind Games with Magic Spoon!

You heard the man. The real question remains, however. Will Colton Saint eat his Magic Spoon before the triple threat, or will mind games prevail?